Sunday September 26 the Social Committee of the Undergraduate Student Government of Princeton University announced its headliner and opener for the bi-annual Lawnparties, a music festival held on Prospect Avenue. This year’s headliner is a pop band called LANY, which has multiple allegations for predatory behaviors, including sexual coercion in-person and online, manipulation, and abuse of young women. These allegations are serious and against multiple people affiliated with the band. 

This behavior is egregious and inexcusable, and inviting LANY to perform is siding against survivors that have bravely come forward in the past year. Even worse, giving three students the “opportunity” to meet LANY backstage at the event this October 3rd is putting our own students at risk of being harmed by real, dangerous predators. 

The announcement of this headliner highlights exactly why more transparency is needed in the selection process of the artists performing at Lawnparties, especially after criticism faced in Fall of 2020 for the allocation of an $80,000 budget for Jason Derulo (a selection that angered many and was unknown to USG Senate members who approved the budget). Doubling this year’s budget to pay LANY, a group with established abuses of young women, is unacceptable and not representative of the student body in any way. 

This petition is in response to what is at-best a mishandling of research on the 2021 headliner by the USG Social Committee. This petition demands that USG Social Committee change the headliner for Fall Lawnparties 2021 through a cancelling of LANY, more performances of student artists, or any other solution. The students and allies of Princeton University ask for this and future transparency and foresight during the planning of Lawnparties to come. At Princeton University, we believe survivors. 

Link to Daily Prince article regarding LANY: https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2021/09/lany-jparis-princeton-lawnparties-headliner-fall-2021

Link to Google Doc detailing the accounts of survivors: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W2KbOzvCv-WBmVCzHptV8z6K-j6HB9K81rkomWNQHeQ/edit 

Links to 2020 Lawnparties coverage: 

https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/11/virtual-lawnparties-jason-derulo​ 

https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/09/usg-responds-to-lawnparties-backlash